sand pieces, which have been added to collections of a similar character previously obtained by Messrs. Schumacher, Harwood, Dall, and others. The expenses of these researches were shared by the Smithsonian Institution and the survey of Major Powell.

In the autumn of 1876, Mr. G. Brown Goode, assistant curator in the National Museum, visited Bermuda, and remained there until the spring of 1877. His researches on that island were exhaustive, and resulted in the discovery of many species of marine animals either new to science or previously unrecorded by naturalists from that quarter. In this work he had the co-operation of Mr. J. Matthew Jones, of Halifax, who has for many years devoted himself to the natural history of Bermuda.

Several years ago Dr. J. F. Bransford, U.S.N., while on duty with the expedition sent out by the Navy Department to investigate the practicability of constructing an interoceanic canal through Nicaragua, was attracted by the numerous remains of ancient pottery, stone, etc. In 1876 he was again sent out by the department to review some points of the route, and once more in 1877. During these later visits he made systematic researches into the archæology and natural history of Lake Nicaragua and its islands, and forwarded large numbers of specimens to the National Mu

seum.

Let us now glance at one or two of the state surveys.

Less than two years ago the State of New York appointed a Board of Commissioners of a trigonometric and topographical survey, with Mr. J. T. Gardner as its director. Mr. Gardner has had long experience in Western surveys under Messrs. Whitney, King, and Hayden. With a small appropriation, the primary triangulation, starting from one. of the United States Coast Survey triangles on the Hudson River as a base, has been extended this year over an area of about 3000 square miles, including parts of eleven counties, in which one hundred and seventy points have been located. Five primary stations have been occupied and three more observed upon. The average length of the sides of the triangles is about twenty-eight miles. All the angles were observed by Mr. Gardner himself with a twelve-inch circle reading to tenths of seconds by three micrometers. The

preliminary computations show that the errors of closure in the triangles do not exceed those of the principal surveys of Europe and this country. The secondary and tertiary triangulation has also been extended over about 1700 square miles of the same district, including the greater part of five counties immediately west and northwest of Albany. Within this area almost every town, village, and hamlet, as well as points a few miles apart along the important roads, has been located. One hundred and seventy-five miles of county boundary, including the whole or parts of nine counties, have been marked with granite monuments four feet high, and the position of a large number of them has been fixed trigonometrically. A map of this region will soon be constructed. The local surveyors have already begun to base their surveys of private property on the state triangulation, and deeds are already on record in which the position of the land is described by giving the distance and direction of the nearest survey monument-the use of the needle being abandoned.

Very little field-work has been undertaken the past season in the second state survey of Kentucky, under Professor N. S. Shaler, but progress has been made in the publications. The first four volumes of the economical reports are completed, the fifth and sixth each about half done, and matter enough has accumulated for the completion of the unfinished volumes. These volumes contain over fifty memoirs on the various resources of the commonwealth. A first volume of scientific memoirs has been published and a second commenced. Two volumes of photographic views are also ready for the press. Chemical analyses of over six hundred different samples of the products of the state have been made. Biennial appropriations are made for the continuance of this survey, which has now been in operation six years.

Pennsylvania has also its second geological survey, under the direction of Professor J. P. Lesley, which practically commenced work in June, 1874, with appropriations providing for its continuance until the close of next year. Professor Lesley has kindly furnished so admirable a digest of its operations that it is given in very nearly his own words. A small part of it has reference to the earlier as well as the

later years of the survey, but it will be none the less interesting on that account.

The state was not regularly divided into districts, but the least-known portions were surveyed first. Five district surveys were organized: one in the azoic rocks; one in the Lower Silurian iron-ore limestone belt; one in the Upper Silurian fossil-ore belt, taking in the ore belt of the Lower Devonian; one in the oil field, and one in the bituminous coal-field. Afterwards two other districts were occupied— one that of the Chemung rocks of the northern counties, and another in the bituminous coal-field.

Gradually the number of independent assistant geologists was increased, so that in 1877 Professor Stevenson, Professor White, Mr. W. G. Platt, and Mr. Ashburner have surveyed separate parts of the bituminous - coal area. Mr. Carll and Mr. Chance have together continued the survey of the oil region. Mr. Sherwood has made colored outcrop maps of three northern counties, in addition to three previously made; Mr. Franklin Platt has finished Blair County; Mr. Chance has finished a large contour-line map of the Upper Juniata limestone region; Mr. Billin has half finished a large contour-line map of the Buffalo mountains; Mr. Sanders has nearly half finished the contour-line map of the South Mountain range; Mr. Berlin, under the direction of Professor Prime, has finished the limestone belt iron-ore map as far west as Reading, and commenced the contours of the mountains between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers; Professor Frazer has finished a survey of Lancaster County; Mr. Sanders has laid in the outcrops of Cumberland County, and Mr. C. E. Hall and Mr. Fellows have made large collections and traced outcrops along the Philadelphia belt of azoic rocks.

No changes have been made in the personnel of the corps since its organization. The work is harmonious, the members zealous, and the results large-some of them new and unexpected; but in the main the accuracy of the old survey of 1835-41, under the brothers Rogers, has been satisfactorily established.

The function of the new survey is one of differentiation and precision. The contour-line maps, on a large scale, based on a reticulation of transit and level work, are its best illustration. A multitude of connected, measured, vertical

sections, throughout the bituminous coal- field and oil region, will leave nothing to be desired there in the permanent stratigraphical definition and classification of the coal measures of the state. A new and brilliant light has thus been thrown upon the geology of coal. Another year's work will give nearly all that is needed on the subject of glaciation. Nothing whatever has yet been done in the anthracite field. The materials for it, accumulated by the railroad and coal companies, are beyond calculation, and only need collation and publication to make such a survey complete.

Thirteen octavo volumes of the survey have been printed and distributed, two more will shortly be published, and three others are going through the press. Two volumes. are ready for the press and will soon be in hand; and ten volumes will be prepared this winter for printing in the spring of 1878. With the exception of three volumes of chemical analyses, one of oil-well records, one of railway and other levels, and one by Professor Lesquereux on the flora of the coal, these thirty volumes form a library of local county geological reports. Exhaustive indexes, geologically arranged, give them, however, a scientific value. The county maps published with them will be followed by a small pocket atlas of colored geological county maps of the state.

The only object of the present survey is to put the geology of Pennsylvania within reach of every citizen of the state. If geologists find new knowledge in its publications, it is clear gain; for they are not written for geologists, but for the common people of Pennsylvania. Accuracy and completeness are the only desiderata kept in view.

The Geological and Natural-history Survey of Minnesota, though small in proportion to the preceding, possesses an independence of political influences and a stability which. make it particularly worthy of our attention. It has just completed its sixth year, and is established on a secure though small financial basis, being under the supervision of, and making its reports to, the regents of the state university. It seems destined to do a good work for the state, so far as geology and the kindred sciences are concerned; but the only basis for its topography appears to be the determination of the latitude and longitude of certain points

through the assistance of officers of the United States Lake Survey.

Detailed geological surveys have been made in 1877 in Ramsey, Rice, Pipestone, and Rock counties; and preliminary surveys in Goodhue, Wright, and Morrison counties, as well as along the line of the Northern Pacific and St. Paul and Duluth railways. A careful investigation has been made of the domestic water-supply in the Red River valley. The famous pipe-stone quarry has been described and mapped. Paleontological and chemical studies have been carried on in the laboratory, and the ornithologist and entomologist have been active in the field. The latter has made valuable observations on the ravages of the destructive locust.

The following are the most important results of the year: Evidence has been obtained by Professor N. H. Winchell, the geologist in charge of the survey, indicating the presence of Upper Trenton strata in Ramsey County, where its lithological and paleontological characters bear so close a resemblance to those of the typical Cincinnati group as to suggest that the term Cincinnati may elsewhere have been wrongly applied to true Trenton limestones. The shaly condition of the rocks is believed to be due to the greater proximity of the old azoic axis of the continent, causing coarser sedimentation.

A study of the more recent deposits shows that in the southwestern part of Minnesota the loess loam enters the state from the south, becoming gradually coarser in going north, with gravel-stones and pebbles, until it passes into a stony clay and at last into a true boulder clay, apparently continuous with the later boulder clay of the drift period. This would show the loam of the great rivers and lake valleys of the West to be simply the drainage from the vast drift accumulations formed further north at the time of the last glacial epoch.

The investigation of the drinking-water in the Red River valley was made because it had been feared that the noxious odors which prevail in wells sunk in this district, and which had proved disastrous to the health of the inhabitants, were due to the nature of the soil itself, and would always render the region unhealthy. It was found that the trouble extended over the whole western-prairie portion of the state, and